A common injury, especially among athletes and people of advancing age, is the complete or partial detachment of tendons, ligaments, or other soft tissues from bone. Tissue detachment may occur during a fall, by overexertion, or for a variety of other reasons. Surgical intervention is often needed, particularly when tissue is completely detached from its associated bone. Currently available devices for tissue attachment include screws, staples, suture anchors, and tacks.
One or more sutures are typically used in soft tissue repair procedures with devices for tissue attachment to secure the tissue in a desired location. The sutures are typically disposed through one or more portions of the tissue to be repaired, one or more devices for tissue attachment, and/or one or more tissues adjacent to the tissue to be repaired. The suture(s) are typically tensioned to position and hold the element(s) through which the suture(s) are disposed in desired positions relative to one another to facilitate healing of the damaged tissue. However, it can be difficult and/or time consuming to determine which direction to pass the suture(s) through the tissue and/or other element(s) and/or which direction to tension the suture(s). For example, when the suture(s) are being used in an arthroscopic procedure, only a small portion of the suture(s) may be visible arthroscopically, and at least some element(s) through which the suture(s) pass may not be visible at all when the suture(s) are being threaded and/or tensioned. It can therefore be difficult and/or time consuming to determine which direction to pass and/or tension the suture. For another example, when a suture is looped through tissue and/or another element such that two or more limbs of the suture extend from the tissue and/or other element, it can be difficult and/or time consuming to determine which one of the limbs to tension when all of the limbs are part of the same suture and hence all look the same as one another. Similarly, when multiple sutures that look the same are all in use, it can be difficult and/or time consuming to determine which of the sutures to tension, at all or in a certain order, and in which direction to tension the sutures even after the proper suture for tensioning has been identified.
In addition to being used in soft tissue repair procedures, sutures are also used in other medical procedures, such as in closing skin surface wounds and in various aspects of cosmetic surgery. Similar to that discussed above regarding sutures in soft tissue repair procedures, it can be difficult and/or time consuming to determine which direction to pass sutures through tissue and/or other material and/or which direction to tension the sutures when performing these other medical procedures.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved surgical sutures.